trade of the St. Lawrence. The extraordinary abundance of the English harvests in the same year, closed the British ports against Canadian exports.

The Trade Act of 1822, passed by the Imperial Parliament, did serious injury to the Canadian commerce. In 1825 there was a compensation made by a regulation, that the wheat of Canada should be admitted into the United Kingdom at a fixed duty of 5s. per quarter. In 1831, the policy that prevailed before 1822 was renewed. The timber and agricultural produce of the United States were admitted free into Canada, and could be exported thence, as Canadian produce, to all countries except the United Kingdom. In addition to this, a differential duty, in favour of Canadian produce, was imposed upon foreign lumber entering the West Indian and South American possessions. The exports in flour and wheat from Canada by sea, in 1831, were about 400,000 bushels. These stores were sent chiefly to Britain, where a scarcity then prevailed. So large an export in flour was not again made until 1844. The crops in England being unusually abundant between 1832 and 1839, when a scarcity prevailed in the United States, the order of things in the St. Lawrence was reversed; so that, in 1833, wheat was shipped from Britain to Quebec. Supplies, also, arrived from Archangel. These imports, in 1835 and 1836, amounted to about 800,000 bushels. There was a general revulsion in 1842, when the measures of 1822 were renewed, with the additional annoyance, that now the provision trade was not only interfered with, but the timber trade-the great staple of Quebec-was put under restrictions. The duties on Baltic timber in Britain were reduced, the free importation of American flour was stopped by the imposition of a duty, and the Canadian trade with the West Indies was annihilated by the reduction of the duty upon American flour brought into those islands. A duty of 2s. sterling per barrel was imposed upon American flour imported into Canada, whilst the duty in the West Indies was reduced from 5s. to 2s., making an improvement of 5s. sterling per barrel upon American flour exported from the Mississippi, Baltimore, and New York, During the exclusion of the Americans, in 1830, the value of the Canadian trade with the West Indies amounted to 906,000 dollars. In 1846, it was only 4,000 dollars.

The

The export trade from Canada to Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Cape Breton, reached its highest point in 1836; it has since fluctuated, but never again reached so high a point as in that year. It must be remembered that, in 1836, the Americans were importing breadstuffs, and could not, therefore, compete with Quebec. Act of 1842, which was so injurious to the Canadian trade with the West Indies, was scarcely less so to that carried on with the Gulf provinces. In 1841, before the Gladstone Act was passed, the export trade with the lower provinces was worth 456,000 dollars annually. In 1844, the amount fell off to 204,000. We have seen that the trade of Canada suffered a serious interruption by the Trade Act of 1822. A compensation was made in 1825 by the permanent admission of Canadian breadstuffs into Britain. Besides this, there were U. S. MAG., No. 310, SEPTEMBER, 1854.

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concessions made in 1826. In 1842, the trade of Canada with the West Indies was again suspended-or, more properly speaking, destroyed; and we find advantages accorded to the Canadians, in 1843, when they were permitted to export American wheat, received under a comparatively nominal duty, as Canadian, without proof of origin, to the British market. This measure, so advantageous to Canada, being an indirect blow to the English Corn-laws, contained the elements of its own destruction. The immediate influence of this measure was highly favourable to the Canadians; so much so, that in 1846 more than half a million barrels, and as many bushels, of flour and wheat, were shipped from Canada by sea.

The colonial policy of the British government previous to 1846, although vacillating and contradictory, gave manifest encouragement to the sea trade of Canada, for by the duties imposed upon inland importations, the exports of Western Canada found their way into the ports of Montreal and Quebec. But when the British Corn Laws were repealed, the aspect of things changed. The principle of free trade being established, and the advantages which the British market once offered to Canadian produce having ceased, the exports of Canada West, instead of taking the route of the St. Lawrence, turned to New York. So great was the revulsion, that the quantity of wheat and flour sent from Canada to New York in 1850, exceeded by a great deal that exported by sea through the St. Lawrence.

Quebec, the most ancient as well as the most important port of Canada, embraces the outports of Gaspé, New Carlisle, the Magdalen Islands, and some others in the river below Quebec. The harbour of Quebec, like that of New York, has two channels of approach, the island of Orleans, like Long Island, dividing the waters. The spring tide rises eighteen feet, and extends ninety miles above Quebec. The navigation of this majestic river, combined with that of the gulf, extends upwards of seven hundred miles before we reach the Atlantic, with which it has no less than three connections. The Strait of Belleisle-the northern outlet-is navigable about five months of the year. The passage to Liverpool through these straits is two hundred miles shorter than the route by Cape Race, making the distance between Quebec and Liverpool four hundred miles shorter than that between Liverpool and New York.

The advantages that Canada possesses in her internal commerce, are well exemplified in her canals, the largest in the world. A canal of twenty-eight miles in length, connects Lake Ontario with Lake Erie. In this canal there are thirty locks, one hundred and fifty feet long, capable of passing a craft of five hundred tons burden. The locks of the St. Lawrence have a capacity double this amount. The number of vessels, British and foreign, that passed the St. Lawrence canals in 1850 and 1851, amounted to 18,874, paying a toll of £6,407. The sub-soil treasures of America render her as interesting to the mineralogist and geologist, who in their inquiries seek only scientific truths, as these same mineral treasures, with her com

mercial advantages, make her important in the eyes of the merchant and legislator. Her majestic rivers, her dark, deep forests, her vast lake-chains, give a giant magnificence to her aspect. Though we have only spoken of some commercial topics, upon which Mr. Andrews touches, we are not insensible to the interesting manner in which he has treated the scientific subjects connected with the natural wealth of America. We may possibly return to this subject.

JACK ADAMS, THE LAST OF THE "SEA-LIONS."-A SKETCH.

BY EDWIN F. ROBERTS.

WHEN I was a mere lad, Jack Adams was an old grizzly-headed, grizzly-bearded, sun-dried, tempest-beaten, ocean-nurtured piece of human bronze, standing six feet high in his pumps, when he wore them, though wreck, and fire, and water, and the "iron rain" of battle, had for many a year beaten against his brave old trunk, seeking to bend or break it, and signally failing in both. He was, to my thinking, one of the finest specimens of humanity and of his class, one of the handsomest men I ever saw. To look at him, a colossus made up of huge fisher's boots, an enormous pea-jacket, and a cast-ironlooking "sou-wester," agility appeared out of the question, and even ordinary locomotion seemed doubtful; he looked so devoid of joints-was such a cumbrous piece of immobility. But few were as agile as Jack. His step was as active and as springy as a youth's, and his natural energy of character gave him a lightsome buoyancy which was equivalent to the natural elasticity of twenty; and even then, with the snows of three-score falling upon his crisp, curly hair, which yet retained enough of its original colour to show how dark it had once been, he could foot it with the merriest, and go through a hornpipe or a reel (on rare occasions, for Jack had a character for gravity) as lightly and as trippingly, and with as fantastic a toe, as he had done thirty or forty years ago, when he and his shipmates had landed from a cruise at Portsmouth or at Deal, and plunged with the delirious enthusiasm of young seamen, who had been years afloat, into the wildest excesses of their time.

Jack merits a faithful portraiture, and the more faithful the more flattering, for he was among the last of those sea-lions of the past age, who had fought knee-deep in bloody scuppers, under the eye of Collingwood, Parker, and Nelson. His age, too, was a graceful, and even a reverend one, for he was universally fond of, and a favourite with children, and used few oaths, unless in extremity, and then, doubtless, they were "double shotted." Cast in a rough but remarkably fine mould, with a width of chest and smallness of loins, where muscle and tendon were packed like layers of springy steel, with a conformation of limbs which united strength, activity, and a unique statuesque

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beauty together, he was at sixty a marvel of preservation and rejuvenescence. His features were of somewhat large proportion. nose was almost "Roman" in its curve and length. His undimmed eyes still retained in their grayish light, their twinkle of fun, fury, or firmness, as the mood might be on him, for Jack was irate and explosive as a grenade, but destitute of all approach to harm. His mouth was large, lips severely chiselled, and, without one being missing, his teeth were strong, regular, and very white; in fact, it did one good to behold Jack laugh, for every feature joined in the honest expression. His head was firmly and somewhat haughtily set between shoulders which might have served as a model for those of an Atlas. Bronzed by exposure to that deep and dusky red seen in Spanish mahogany, with a still deeper and richer hue of ruddiest health glowing in each cheek, you have Jack Adams, as nearly as I can remember him more than a quarter of a century ago.

My acquaintance with him commenced somewhere about 1824, at an age when every bit of timber I could lay hands upon, "beg, borrow, or steal," took the extraordinary forms of those queer craft "which go down in little waters," and where every pond, lake, or river, became so many Atlantic Oceans and North Seas, when you cross knee-deep in rushes, moisture, and mud, to meet the vessel you have sent sailing off with a very "flowing sheet" from one corner of the pond to meet the arrival of the same at a foreign port on the other. Three hundred "sail of the line" did I, no doubt, possess, "docked" in every pocket, and pulled out when occasion, in the shape of a puddle of water, offered itself, and out of this fine fleet, Jack, with his jack-knife, had cut out for me some score or two of the best. Mine were bulky, wall-sided, crank things, carrying their own cargo within them, as I disdained making a hold and decking it over. Jack was an artist, and I did the rigging, pitching, and tarring, and "serving," to perfection. Oh, my fairy fleet! whither has it sailed? What fancies, and dreams, and wild yearnings did it bear away to that phantom-land it assuredly made sail for; wrecked, mayhap, in sight of Prospero's weird isle, the crews made up of filmy thoughts "lapped in Elysium," while I-I am floundering here yet dreaming of that dim and visionary past with something like affection, something like regret, mingling together.

My old friend had been "bred" to the sea from a boy, and I here wilfully avoid a bad pun. As cabin-boy of a coaster, he was familiar with every shore of Britain. Entering the merchant-service ere manhood came upon him, he navigated the Pacific, the Atlantic, the Indian and the North Seas. He had visited the Levant as well as Polynesia, and many a wild tale of picarooning, of wreck and mutiny, of treasurehunting and the like, had Jack to relate. He had spent the better part of the last twenty years of his life in the Royal Navy; and escaping from brawl, and battle, and wreck, with mere cuts and bruises, Jack had much to say of the Providence that protected him while scores died in every way around. For Jack was religious, and superstitious to boot, and while he invariably rebuked swearing and profane language, he would dilate on the perils of sailing on a Friday in a manner that was worthy of the "Ancient Mariner." Having been paid off at

the close of the war, he had married a wife, purchased a boat, and settled down in the little town of Flint, where (although not "native born") he took possession of the Dee, according to the code of the "rights of man," and cast his nets and sold his fish for many a pleasant year.

But I am wrong in saying that he sold his fish. It was his hardworking, industrious wife, Molly Adams, who did that part of the work, and well did she help her goodman in their laborious duties. Molly Adams was a redoubtable woman. She had, I am convinced, the "hardest" features that ever woman possessed, and the softest heart that beat in female bosom. Tall well-nigh as her husband, she looked -as, with basket on head and with great strides, she traversed through the streets of the town-like an incarnation of stern, forbidding ferocity;. but a kinder woman, a tenderer nurse, or a more generous creature, never lived; and it is possible some may yet live, who have reason for saying so besides myself.

The town of Flint, situated on the Dee, with its old castle and "golden sands," (a few of them lying under the lee of the castle, whence at night I have heard fairy music,) is by no means metropolitan; and Molly's voice might be heard shrilly rising from the distance of many streets, from the market-place to utmost circumference, for the said town is not extensive, though it has room to roast a bullock, as I well remember. On the one side are lead works, potteries, and the like. On the other, and stretching over hamlet and village, are coal-pits in abundance, the ugly machinery of their shafts appearing in the twilight like the arms of some frantic and very grimy ghost. Then there is a hilly section, embracing a strata of ochry clay, with which we would tattoo and ruddle our visages on half-holidays, and other stolen hours, in proof thereof, till we were like so many Indians in their war-paint. From the prison doors (in which prison the town boys ere now used to play at ball), and along the High Street, was not very far to the dusty, "coaly" country, arid, burnt-up, and black as it was with tram-roads intersecting it. At the corner of the streets and bye-lanes leading to the pits, groups of colliers might be seen squatted on their haunches, or dancing the "frog-hornpipe," with astonishing vigour and perseverance; and Molly's voice in a clangour of menacing approach, would be attractive as a spell, for some there were who ventured to "chaff" the fish-wife, but they were generally inexperienced, and with all their audacity did not dare to repeat their temerity after.

Jack's house was commodious, clean, substantially furnished, and the dwelling of actual comfort. The trophies and spoils, the collected curiosities of wild nature and savage art, which bedecked his walls, were worthy of a small museum. Clubs and canoes, horrible masks from some New Zealand "morai," grassy garments, helmets made from palm leaves, spears of lance-wood and tipped with the shark's teeth, flinty-headed arrows, besides an old musket (such an old one!), his polished cutlass and belt, which hung in the place of honour over the fire-place, strange Indian pipes, calabashes, a genuine China punch-bowl-filled, too, on state occasions-and many other things too numerous to mention, met the inquirer's eye. This was in Jack's sunc